The present application claims priority upon Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-322403 filed on Oct. 23, 2000, which is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone answering device, and also to a method for telephone answering by acquiring procedure files stating various answering functions to be realized by the telephone answering device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various methods of providing the procedures for telephone answering to the telephone answering device. For example, there is a method of providing by adding a new program for the telephone answering device, a method of providing using a software to provide telephone answering procedures attached to the telephone device, and a method of providing by stating the telephone answering procedures in the data base which may be read by the telephone device. With any of these methods, the telephone answering procedures may be provided through a communication line, to the telephone answering device. But since in any of the cases, there is a need to provide telephone answering procedures to match the telephone answering device which is the object, an instructor who tries to provide the telephone answering procedures had to learn the specifications of the telephone answering procedures which each telephone answering device requires, and then make a program or data base stating the telephone answering procedures. Further, since these telephone answering procedures have nothing in common with the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) used generally by such as an Internet, there is no connection between telephone control and Internet communication. Thus, aside from sending in a format such as an attached file a program with the telephone answering procedures itself made independent, and operating a software with remote manipulation by communication for telephone answering procedure operations attached to the telephone answering device, there was no method to provide the telephone answering procedures to the telephone answering device.
Recently, a portable telephone having a communicating function to such as the Internet, and having a browsing function of such as a homepage stated by a markup language (network corresponding language) such as HTML is becoming popular. By performing a simple description to the markup language for browsing of these portable telephones, calling from the telephone may be easily performed which is for calling simply as a conventional portable telephone. Thus, in order to perform telephone answering or the like, a telephone answering device for every line needs to be prepared, investment in equipment thereof becomes excessive, and obstructs the promotion of use of the telephone answering device.
The present invention is made in view of the above conventional problems, and the object thereof is to provide a telephone answering device, and a telephone answering method thereof, which can realize desired diverse telephone answering functions, by stating the telephone answering operations with a markup language which is highly generalized and used widely in such as Internet communication, and acquiring the telephone answering operations via a communication network and obtaining the various telephone answering procedures.
The telephone answering device according to the present invention performs an answering process to a telephone connected via a telephone communication network, and is provided with the following (A) to (F) means.
(A) communication means for connecting with an appropriate WWW server through the communication network;
(B) dialers""-list acquiring-storage means for acquiring and storing a dialers"" list including one or a plurality of dialed numbers from said WWW server connected by said communication means;
(C) file-acquiring-storage means for acquiring, by said communication means, and storing a telephone-answering-procedure file based on a URL which is corresponded to said dialed number, wherein a location of the file, which is stated with a telephone-answering procedures in markup language, is corresponded to said dialed number in said dialers"" list as the URL;
(D) markup-language-file-decoding means for reading out said telephone-answering-procedure file from said storage means, and decoding a series of execution commands of said telephone-answering procedures;
(E) calling means for reading out said dialers"" list from said dialers"" list acquiring storage means and calling based on said dialed number; and
(F) answering-operation-execution means for executing an answering operation to the telephone, in accordance with the execution command of the decoded telephone-answering-procedures, when a relevant dialer is connected to via the telephone communication network by said calling means.
Further, the telephone answering method according to the present invention, acquires each procedure file stating the various answering functions realized in the telephone answering device for executing the answering processes to the telephone connected via the telephone communication network, wherein comprising the following means (I) to (VI).
a step of connecting with an appropriate WWW server through the communication network;
(II) a dialers"" list acquiring storage step for acquiring and storing the dialers"" list including one or a plurality of the dialed numbers from said WWW server connected to by said communication means;
(III) a file acquiring storage step for acquiring, by said communication means, and storing said telephone answering procedure file based on a URL corresponding to said dialed number, wherein a location of the file, which is stated with the telephone answering procedures in markup language, is corresponded to said dialed number in said dialers"" list as the URL;
(IV) a markup language file decoding step for decoding a series of execution commands of said telephone answering procedures by reading out said telephone answering procedure file;
(V) a calling step for reading out said dialers"" list and conducting calling based on said dialed number; and
(VI) an answering-operation execution step for executing an answering operation to a relevant telephone, in accordance with said execution command of said decoded telephone answering procedures, when connected to the relevant dialer via said telephone communication network.